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As a producer of global affairs television programming for the better part of the past decade, I’ve long been dismayed by the fact that the pool of guests we’re often forced to draw from is so heavily male-dominated. In my experience, women tend approach the global challenges America faces …

While foreign policy had a brief moment in the sun during this past election cycle, Americans are still clearly, and rightly, preoccupied with the challenges we face here at home. A CBS poll taken just before President Barack Obama was re-elected found that just 5 percent of …

As history tells it, the father of modern day Myanmar, Gen. Aung San, was assassinated in 1947 not long after the country gained its independence from Britain as he sought to forge a democracy among leaders from Myanmar’s 100-plus ethnic groups. But even 50 years of authoritarian military rule …

In this week’s foreign policy debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, terrorism in the northern part of the West African nation of Mali was brought up unexpectedly. FPA’s Robert Nolan speaks with Mali Columbia University’s Gregory Mann about the situation there.
Unabashed destruction of historic UNESCO …

This week the second ever Africa-India Summit took place, with New Delhi signaling that it was committed to doing business with the continent and supporting both national and regional development.
Trade between India and Africa amounted to roughly $46 billion in 2010, but the partners aim to increase …

“This conference cannot close without adopting a single African Charter. We cannot leave here without having created a single African organization…. If we fail in this, we will have shirked our responsibility to Africa and to the peoples we lead.”
So said …

The 30th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s most politically influential musicians was marked around the world yesterday, highlighted by the opening of an exhibition on the reggae singer’s life at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Music fans and political observers around the world marked …

Top officials from the African Union visited Washington last week to discuss relations between the U.S. and the emerging pan-African body. It was the second such meeting, and a joint statement was released outlining the “full range” of U.S.-Africa priorities, including democratic governance, economic development, health and …

The African Union Commission Chairman, Jean Ping, yesterday told an audience in Washington that the International Criminal Court continues to target African leaders unfairly, accusing the body of “double standards” as it seeks to try those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — most recently …

African Union Chairman Jean Ping will address the U.S. Institute of Peace today following meetings with top officials in Washington. The address, which is expected to touch on hot button issues like the interventions in Libya and Ivory Coast, elections in Nigeria and U.S.-Africa relations, will be webcast live beginning …

Libyan officials aren’t the only ones seeking to defect to neighboring countries these days. Like the Qadaffi clan in Tripoli, the regime of Cote D’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo has come under international pressure as violence between the incumbent and the opposition escalates. Top level officials, including the

Bill O’Reilly said it was logical. Donald Trump said it made no sense. Sarah Palin called it disappointing.
Regardless of one’s opinion of President Obama’s speech last night on the U.S. military intervention in Libya, though, there no doubt seemed to be hints of an emerging “Obama Doctrine” in his …

As African Union peacekeepers continue to come under attack in Somalia, the mission there, known as AMISOM, received two pieces of good news this week.
First off, Uganda and Burundi, offered to send 4,000 more troops to the mission. The two countries account for a majority of what …

Not really sure what to make of this bizarre video of virtuoso guitar playing, North Korean six-year-olds. The skill level is amazing, though one has to dig deep in any attempt to understand the context that their training and performance must have taken place in. One commentator noticed …

Despite past disagreements with the Libyan leader over the pace of African integration and the awkward fact that Qaddafi provided support for Uganda’s murderous former leader, Idi Amin, Ugandan President Yoweri Musevini is highly critical of the Western intervention in Libya in an article printed by Foreign Policy magazine. …

About the Author

Robert Nolan

Robert Nolan is Editor-in-Chief of New Media at the Foreign Policy Association and a writer and producer of the Great Decisions Television Series on PBS. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe and graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, he has interviewed numerous heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, artists and musicians, and policymakers.